EDIT; I can’t reply to everyone individually but thanks for all the suggestions! Opiates are out of the question, doctors here will only prescribe those in terms of absolutely extreme suffering or end of life care. I also don’t particularly feel interested in developing a hard drug habit. Diclofenac and such are available but also only on separate prescriptions, I’d have to visit another doctor for that. I’m well stocked on paracetamol & ibuprofen, and apart from that, lots of ice cream, pudding & soup :)
Also, since a fair few people seem to doubt the veracity of my story, here’s the 22 extracted teeth (the other 10 were already gone in previous extractions).
Did you and your doctor not have this conversation!?
Or are you more inclined to listen to the internet over the person who’s job it is to pull all your teeth out of your head?
Answer: Oxy.
Yeah first thing I thought, too. “Have you tried asking somebody who does this professionally? Like, oh I don’t know, THE SURGEON?!”
It was probably Aspen Dental.
Hi. You’ve gotten a lot of comments already. I hope this one is not lost in the pile.
When I was 39 I had all my remaining teeth extracted in one go. There were somewhere between 12 and 18, since many were remnants and not whole teeth.
Due to the fact that previously in my life I had addictions of many kinds, mostly alcohol and meth related, I was not prescribed opiates. When the procedure was done, I was awake and given only a local anesthetic.
After they were removed, I was given Amoxicillin (antibiotic) and Prednisone (steriod). They recommended I take Ibuprofen and to avoid acetaminophen (same as paracetamol i think). The latter due to many over the counter versions of it have caffiene. That brings me to my first advice.
Avoid caffeine at all costs. It will increase your pain, make you edgier and you may grind your gums in your sleep. Check your paracetamol packaging, make sure it does not have caffeine. You might want to avoid it regardless because it can irritate your stomach lining and you’ll be swallowing a lot of blood which increases your chance of vomiting.
If you vomit, you will almost certainly get dry socket.
You do not want dry socket.
Ice cream is painful. Anything too cold or too hot is painful. Soup should be room temperature.
Bouillon cubes aren’t bad, if you can get liquid soup stock or broth, it works better.
Do not eat breads for at least a week or two. It sticks to you clots. That can easily lead to dry socket.
You do not want dry socket.
Same thing with (american) bananas. They might seem perfect but they can cause dry socket potentially from their stickiness.
I have had dry socket. Once from smoking cigarettes. Once from being clumsy with a spoon. It was the worst pain of my life until I had to pass a few kidney stones.
Avoid foods that require cooking. You don’t want to cook.
One a day shakes should be your new best friend. Meal replacement shakes. Here in the states they come in chocolate and vanilla and don’t taste terrible. Brands include Ensure, Boost, Slimfast and a ton of others. They are packed with protein. They often have vitamins in them too. You can just pour the shake right into the back of your gullet. Bypass your gums and tongue entirely.
Another medication to consider is sleeping pills. I’m spelling them wrong but see if you can get Amitryptaline or Tramadol. Sleep as much as you can while your body heals.
Water, water, water.
Drink at least 2 liters a day. Never drink more than 1 liter in an 8 hour period because water poisoning is very uncomfortable. If your pee is clear, you don’t need to drink water for awhile. The better hydrated you are, the faster you will heal. Drink a lot of water after drinking one of those meal replacement shakes if you can find them. Your body will absorb the water better. Same applies to the soup stock.
On that note, shower. If it is too painful, take a bath. Again, this helps you stay hydrated, plus is will improve your mood possibly, which in itself can ease the pain.
Move. Walk around the block if you can. You want to get your heart rate up and keep it up for about 15 minutes, twice a day. Again, this helps your body heal faster. Walking is great unless you are a daily runner, in which case run. Walking is enough for most people.
A perfect routine would be:
- Wake up. Drink some water.
- Drink a protein shake and some water. Take your medications with them.
- Walk around the block. Or if unsafe or to pained, walk in place. Get that heart rate up.
- Shower or bath.
- Go back to sleep.
- Repeat 3-4x per day, depending on how much you can sleep. It gets harder to sleep the more your do it. The exercise helps a lot.
I am not a dentist or medical professional.
I am not a professional of any kind.
This advice is all from personal experience.
Here’s some useless personal information that can be skipped:
December of 2021 when my teeth were all removed. Since then I have gotten dentures. They didn’t fit and hurt to wear and needed adjustments, but the dentist that made them quit the business a week after I got them. Other dentists would not take my insurance or work on them for liability purposes. Sucks being in america. I opted to get implants instead. I’m supposed to have a full set of teeth in about a month, at age 42, for the first time in my entire adult life.
Good luck. May dry socket never happen to you.
Edit after reading a few of the comments here.
Fuck these naysayers that think you’re making this up. Even if you are, fuck 'em. Trying to shit on a person while they are already down. No benefit at all, just cynics, they’re disgusting.
I’m going to add that my teeth were in terrible shape long before I had addiction problems. My dental problems were due to braces getting fucked up and mangled beyond belief by a scammy dentist/ortho.
Medicaid and Medicare can be free healthcare in the states. While I don’t think OP is in the states, it is a thing that the poorest of people can receive and the care is exactly what you pay for. All the questions about speaking to a doctor or the dentist about pain management are laughable, knowing that for the poor in the states, that simply doesn’t happen in many areas.
People saying OP deserved it from not brushing or questions about how one could need a full extraction at age 40 are ignorant and can’t summon even the smallest bit of empathy. These types along with the naysayers can go fuck off back to reddit or 4chan or whereever they came from. They are not adding to the conversation.
If you have read all this, anyone not just OP, I hope you have a nice day.
I read all this. God damn, I thought root canal procedure was a pain…
Fantastic advice man, best of luck for your implants
Fantastic writeup!
A teeny tiny correction, taking a bath will in fact dehydrate you (only a small bit, unless you have a Swimmingpool and move, then it’ll dehydrate you much more)
I was not aware of bathing causing dehydration but I can see how it makes sense. Thanks for the correction!
+1 wondering why someone in their 40s had to have all teeth extracted. I’m really sorry.
I’ve had issues with my teeth almost since birth. My parents both had full dentures by ages 25 or so. It was definitely a combination of genetics and bad oral hygiene. I was actually glad to get them all out now because I’ve suffered from debilitating pain for weeks at least once or twice every single year of my life.
I feel you. I grew up on well water (no fluoride), have a genetic predisposition for terribly crooked teeth, and wasn’t taught basic oral hygiene until I was legally an adult.
I’ve had several extractions but every time it has been either an abscess or an impacted tooth, so just the relief from that pain was almost like a drug itself. About half my teeth are fake at this point and the ones that are left are in pretty good shape because they weren’t too far gone when I actually learned how to properly take care of them.
fluoride in water doesn’t do much to prevent tooth decay.
the fluoride in toothpaste is what does all heavy lifting.
Fluoride in water can help if you’re not taught proper care and feeding of teeth, but you are right. The fluoride in toothpaste is what should be doing the heavy lifting.
I’m in a similar situation. Have tried to get where you’re at, but have been quoted in the $30,000 price range. There is no insurance that covers any of that cost, and they all want payment up front.
Any suggestions?
Thanks for sharing - I’m glad to know this is an improvement for you in spite of everything. I hope the pain eases soon!
I’m so sorry to hear about the pain. Doctors don’t take oral pain seriously enough.
Don’t forget you can ice it too. Alternating ibuprofen/acetominophen thing is your best bet outside of more serious pain meds, but ice is effective for numbing pain.
Are you doing “all on 4”?
Do what I did as a kid getting my wisdom teeth removed. Have your mother steal the prescription meds and then suffer for two weeks with Tylenol.
Whenever i think i had a bad childhood, i’ll think back to that very comment.
I could tell you about the drunken screaming too if it’ll help lol
I still don’t understand how a lot of our organs evolved to self repair and generally be so sophisticated but our teeth need so much care to avoid pain and infection.
Sugar fucks you up.
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Bad teeth since my early youth - mostly genetic coupled with insufficient oral hygiene.
I’m not getting veneers or implants since I can’t afford those (I was quoted 34K €, which is just slightly below my annual salary). Once my gums heal, it’ll be the cheapest dentures I can find since nothing is covered until age 50.
sorry to hear man. I hope getting them removed ends up being better for you overall.
I don’t know what your dentist is on (he must be high on something) to agree to remove all your teeth at once.
I had all my wisdom teeth pulled and they did that two per side, as otherwise the sedative would relax the tounge muscle, which might cause you to choke. After that I got sent home with a big stack of painkillers (NSAIDS, no opiates).
I’d look for a different dentist tbh, but thats a bit late now.
OP likely had a disgusting rotting mouth, with deep gingival pockets-of-pus, from never flossing and brushing their fucking teeth.
My friend is a periodontal surgeon and tells me the most horrendously disgusting shit people tolerate (sometimes with photos) and that level of extraction that OP is complaining about sounds close to one of his very gory horrific descriptions of people neglecting simple oral hygiene.
My stepfather has constant, disgusting mouth infections because he eats terribly, never cares for his teeth, and smokes. Bro had a pocket of puss inside his mouth that made him look like he was keeping a golfball in his mouth. He won’t go to a dentist because he claims his mouth can’t be numbed. He says it just doesn’t work. In reality, he’s just scared. Man never goes to a doctor for anything because he’s scared.
he claims his mouth can’t be numbed
This is a thing. My wife has to get lots of extra shots of the gum numbing stuff. Her first dentist as a kid didn’t believe her that she could still feel and it caused her huge trauma.
We have found a bunch of sedation dentists for my stepfather and he always cancels appointments last minute. His mouth is literally rotting. I can’t comprehend how he can be okay with his mouth being in that state. It could kill him so easy
Omigod you poor thing.
Ibuprofen (Advil) and acetaminophen/paracetamol (Tylenol). Take max dosage but alternate them. Read the bottle and don’t quote me, but it’s something like 800mg ibuprofen every 8 hours and 1000mg of paracetamol every 6. So take ibuprofen, 3-4 hours later take paracetamol, then back and forth. Do not exceed 2400/4000 or whatever your bottle says.
That’s the method I was taught to get the most/longest pain relief with OTC.
Those rocket icecreems Cold pack
Eat stuff you don’t have to shew… So you don t open the wounds again.
2% betadine mouth wash… Not against pain but to keep more pain away.
I love the 1000 paracetamol with codeine alternated with brufen 600.
In a day or 2 it will be beter. Hang on.
OP a lot of people are advising you to COMBINE ibuprofen and acetaminophen.
DO NOT MIX THESE TWO DRUGS; INSTEAD, ALTERNATE THEM
You can alternate them, taking ibuprofen, then later taking acetaminophen.
But don’t mix them. I’m sorry for spamming the allcaps throughout this thread but there is very dangerous medical advice being given.
They sell ibuprofen with acetaminophen at the pharmacy, off the shelf, so that’s not an issue.
It is recommended to alternate between the two so that you are always under the effect of either one and it reduces the pain throughout the day, instead of having big spikes of pain/no-pain.
I mean you can combine them, if the pain is expected to be short term, but in OP’s case the pain is likely to be longer term, where alternating may be a better choice. For example Excedrin is a combo of acetaminophen, NSAID (aspirin), and caffeine.
Yeah Combogesic is an example of combined ibuprofen and acetaminophen. Advil also makes a combo of the two as well. The main issue to keep track of what you’re taking and take care that you don’t exceed the daily dose for each. That’s something to watch out for whether you take them separately or in combination with one another.
This is why I buy drugs individually instead of combined whenever possible—for greater control over what exactly I’m taking.
It’s perfectly safe to take them at the same time and was the exact advice given to me after having my wisdom teeth extracted. You can even buy medication that has both ingredients, like Excedrin. One is metabolized by the kidneys and the other by the liver.
This combination is actually shown to work better than opiates for dental pain
Combined Tylenol and ibuprofen is probably your best bet otc.
Like Motrin.
No!
DO NOT MIX ibuprofen and acetaminophen!
You need to alternate these in schedule:
- Take 600-800 mg ibuprofen
- Wait six hours
- Take 500-1000 mg acetaminophen
- Wait six hours
- repeat
Note that the upper end doses I mentioned are SHORT TERM dosages. Don’t do that more than a couple of days.
Where have you been told this? Are you perhaps confusing acetaminophen for something else? Doctors will tell you that you can take ibuprofen and acetaminophen (paracetamol) together . It’s advised you wait an hour after you take one type before you take the other to see if the first medication works well enough. There are even medications sold as a combination of both. What you shouldn’t take ibuprofen along with other Non-steroidal anti-i inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like aspirin.
You may be right. The combination of ibuprofen and aspirin might be the thing I was advised against by my doctor. It was back in 2019 that I had this event so my memory could be hazy.
On the other hand, when’s the last time you saw a box of Combogesic on the shelf?
Not sure what’s available where you’re at without a prescription, but I recommend Orajel or any equivalent ulcer/tooth ache gel.
In addition to the other things you’re already using, you can steep black tea bags in warm water and gently bite on that. The tannins help with bleeding and inflammation.
A mouthwash or spray with Cetylpyridinium Chloride in the ingredients list will help with healing, but don’t buy a mouthwash that has alcohol/isopropyl in the ingredients. Dentyl, Oral B Gum detoxify, Parodontax, Biotene Dry Mouth Spray are all good.
I had several teeth removed from my inside my jaw that never came out and had a bone graft placed in the area that had to heal for 6 months before dental implants were placed. The mouthwash definitely helped me heal faster from that surgery than when I had my wisdom teeth out the year before and didn’t use any. Just do a gentle rinse dont swish it around hard! You don’t want to disturb the blood clots and get dry socket.
I hope you start to feel better soon!
Clove oil. You can get it in a tiny vial at the chemist. You pick off small bits of cotton, roll them into little balls, and dip into the clove oil. Wring out most of it against the side of the bottle, then place directly on the site of pain and bite.
In your case you might want to make strips of cotton or something.
It tastes absolutely horrible and will make your whole mouth numb, but it is antiseptic and will give you enough relief to sleep.
I had an infected tooth and the pain was awful. The dentist told me to take four ibuprofen. When I mentioned the instructions said no more than two at a time he said it was okay for a short period of time.
